Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.

Getting it exactly wrong

During the campaign, when I pointed out to liberals some of Obama’s more egregious Leftist statements, they pooh-poohed me: “Don’t you know that all politicians campaign to the base, but govern from the center?” I wonder what they think of the fact that Obama, having campaigned to the base, with bows to the center, is now governing from a Leftist extremism that surprises even some of the base. These same liberals are remarkably silent right about now.

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I have no idea whether Henninger, the author of that piece, voted for Obama but it is clear that he is quite astonished at the scope, intent and meaning of what has transpired during Obama’s presidency to date.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine several nights ago. She and her husband are not Republicans or Conservatives by any stetch of the word. In fact, I recall her making some disparaging remarks about Bush several years ago. I don’t know whether she voted for Obama but she mentioned that she and her husband had some concerns about him before the election.

She then went on to say that she and her husband have become alarmed at what they are seeing. And what shocked me was that she seemed particularly upset because she doesn’t know what to tell her children. She said she no longer sees any point of teaching and encouraging her children to work hard and be successful. She even mentioned that she and her husband are seeing some parallels between what we are experiencing and the book, 1984.

I am frightened at what I’m seeing as well. But this was a little bit encouraging to me. This is a very reasonable, very smart woman who might be considered slightly left of center. And this is what she is saying less than two months into the Obama presidency.

Perhaps when the effects of what Obama and the Democrats are doing start trickling down (talk about trickle down economics!), we might start to see more of that.

Mike Devx

Chuck Norris published Black Belt America in September of last year, before Obama won the election. I ran across the “inside flap” promo for the book. I think it’s appropriate for Book’s post – and too good not to share!

From the inside flap of Chuck Norris’ “Black Belt America” :
(begin)
It seems like wherever you turn these days, the news is bad. Illegal immigrants are swarming over our borders. Our nation and American families are crippled by debt. We remain vulnerable to Islamist terrorist attacks. Judges ignore the Constitution and instead legislate from the bench. Faith and traditional values are under incessant assault from the media, leftist lawyers, and the liberal establishment. The core message of the Declaration of Independence–that everyone has a God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–is under threat from liberals who deny the right to life (or even the very idea of God-given rights), and who think the answer to every problem is a government program. They think that God, if He exists, might not know best, but liberal-run government certainly does.

If you’re worried about the direction our country is going, you’re in good company. Chuck Norris remembers a better America–an America of faith, freedom, and respect for tradition, history, and human life–and in Black Belt Patriotism he shows what we need to do to reawaken the American dream, reignite the American spirit, and give our children and grandchildren the America they deserve: an America of freedom, opportunity, and faith. In ten practical, down-to-earth chapters, Norris gets back to basics, mining the insights of our founding fathers and applying their wisdom to the problems of today: immigration, the culture wars, the war against global terrorism, national (and personal) debt, even the epidemic of obesity that is killing more Americans than terrorists do.

With the optimistic, get your-hands-dirty, can-do spirit that typifies what’s best about America, Chuck Norris grapples with the toughest problems facing our country and proves that they’re no match for Black Belt Patriotism.
(end)

I talked on the phone late yesterday afternoon with an old friend that argued with me about almost the same thing but he couldn’t tell me one reason that it was a good thing that this man is our president. He kept telling me that it is we that have to change by educating the great unwashed. My little play on words there.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

These same liberals are remarkably silent right about now.

Tools don’t to tell the user how the tool will be used, Book.

I mean come on, my butter knife telling me I can’t use it to apply peanut butter and jelly because it is called a “butter” knife? Who has heard of that.

No, no, no, Book, those remarkably silent tools are the norm, not the exception. It would be a thing of miracle and surprise had they NOT been remarkably silent, you see.

Deana

Mike –

Wow. I didn’t know Chuck Norris had written a book. I know lots of people sort of pooh-pooh him but I sometimes see him on television and he seems quite humble and very straight-forward, no nonsense.

It sounds like an interesting book.

Mike Devx

Deana,
I have no idea if the book is any good, but that jacket flap was FUN STUFF!

By the way, Y, I’m on “Echoes Of Honor”, #8 in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. He keeps finding fantastic scenarios and avenues for investigating the concepts of duty and honor, and individual responsibility. To think I could have been reading him for the last fifteen years! Well, the older the wine the sweeter, I guess, and in truth, fifteen years ago, being a liberal libertarian (big on the anarchy, short on the responsibility), I honestly wasn’t ready for David Weber back then.

Which of Webers’ would you recommend after having read the Safehold and Honor Harrington books? Should I go into the ancillary “Honorverse” books? Or the Prince Rogers set of books with John Ringo? Or the 1632/33/34 books with Eric Flint? Or a different choice?

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

I highly recommend the Prince Roger set of books. In fact, I think your younger self would probably have liked that the best ; ) It is very personal, it is a very personal story with a smaller world than the Honorverse, with far less politics to trigger those Democrat mental shields ; )

I recommend you read Apocalypse Troll, available free as an ebook, at baen.com. It is a short read, but it shows you what Weber was like in the beginning.

I wouldn’t recommend the Honorverse anthologies and off shoots, if only for the fact that you have not yet learned enough about the Honorverse to find them of interest. I know I didn’t, when I first tried reading them without a Solid Background in the happenstances of the HH series.

I also recommend, if you like humans fighting aliens at terrible odds, the Mutineer’s Moon series. Really expanded my mind ; ) A sort of Intelligent Design twist there.

So, in order. Apocalypse Troll. Mutineer’s Moon. March Upcountry. Then depending on whether you like MM or MU better, get the second book in the series.

Mutineer’s Moon is avialable at baen.com ‘s free library, btw. So is 1632. You don’t “need” to buy or rent the books if you want to read em, Mike ; )

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

He keeps finding fantastic scenarios and avenues for investigating the concepts of duty and honor

Echoes of Honor and Ashes of Victory tell the story of essentially Obama and the Vietnam conflict, except the war didn’t end, quite, in a defeat for Manticore.

So if you aren’t prepared to handle the angst or frustration of seeing an Obama like figure messing up Manticore, you may want to switch series for a bit ; )

The good thing is that the villains in David Weber’s books always come crashing down, eventually. After taking a lot of good guys with em, that is. Hey, but that’s the same with Obama, you may recall, and the Democrat party.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

John Ringo is rather short on the explanations for tactics and strategy. You may get lost if you don’t have your own personal tactical background to apply to the tactics used by Prince Roger and company.

But, it was one of the books I used as a primer, along with Sun Tzu, some Clausewitz, and reading military history, that I used to learn how to understand and apply tactical solutions to different military problems. I was reading them at around the same time as Iraq was being invaded and occupied, the early years. I had not yet achieved enough comprehension of the material to see the counter-insurgency strategy, however, but the tactical exercises in the book forced me to figure out such things for myself, which helped me figure out what Petraeus was doing later on.

You will notice a lot of COIN in that book, Mike, but you will never hear the phrase used. Don’t let that mislead you ; )

Mike Devx

Ymar,
It seems counter insurgency operations are the hot topic these days. I suspected the ‘March’ series would be the best choice for me once I finish the Honor Harrington series, and I’m glad to see you concur.

(I’ve already bought all of the David Weber books except the latest in hardcover. I’ll be accumulating only the Safehold series in hardcover.)

>> It is very personal, it is a very personal story with a smaller world than the Honorverse, with far less politics to trigger those Democrat mental shields

My Democrat mental shields aren’t very evident anymore these days! And four months of David Weber (though the first three months were just an hour here, an hour there…) well, the exposure to such well-written space operas totally devoted to the military outlook, and the very meaning of duty, honor, and individual responsibility… nothing in today’s far-left liberal Democrat filtered viewpoint could possibly survive the Weber experience.

>> John Ringo is rather short on the explanations for tactics and strategy. You may get lost if you don’t have your own personal tactical background

It will be an interesting experiment. I may toss quite a few questions your way! Hopefully, however, I’ll be able to keep up. I have been following Petreaus carefully, and his COIN ops make him the Time Man of the Year of 2007 and 2008 as well, as far as I’m concerned.

>> So if you aren’t prepared to handle the angst or frustration of seeing an Obama like figure messing up Manticore, you may want to switch series for a bit

That’s gonna be tough to take! Where I am in ‘Echoes’, I was kind of hoping Truman’s task force will be able to save the day in Hancock. (The Peeps have *just* arrived, at the start of the worst of the unfair Sims on the LAC concept; what was about to be a monstrously unfair live exercise is about to turn into a shooting battle with the Peeps…)

Mike Devx

I guess once I wrap up Honor Harrington, I’ll read the March series of four; then Empire From The Ashes (Mutineeer series in one volume); then the 1632/3/4 books. I expect Weber and Flint in the 1632/3/4 books to be more enjoyable than Turtledove.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

I enjoyed Eric Flint’s debut 1632 (before he got on secondary collaborationer authors). Of course, it eventually turned into a “community” series, so to speak, rather than Flint’s own vision. So I picked up Flint’s Arkansas war series, for what I missed seeing in 1632.

In my opinion, Flint was best when he was teamed up with David Drake in Belisarius. David Drake was also phenomenal when teamed up with SM Stirling. I could never stand reading Either drake or Stirling’s books when they were the sole authors. combined, they were magnificent.

Course, Weber invigorated the series with his 1633, Baltic War, by introducing professional naval aspects to it. Eric Flint, if you recall, is not a very big military author, science fiction or no science fiction.

I would have preferred to see different perspectives in Flint’s Ring of Fire universe. However, instead of diverting the POVs to the American settlers in Thuringia, I wanted to see things from the German/European’s point of view. And I wanted a deep consideration of such things, on par with David Weber’s Church of God Awakening in the Honorverse or Safehold’s church.

Eric is great when he is writing about underdogs meeting hard challenges. But once the American settlers had themselves settled in, they were no longer the underdogs. The regular people out on the countryside starving, now those were the underdogs. And it would have been nice to hear their stories. But many of the stories you hear dealt with either sociological or technological issues, such as how to adapt future advances to medieval Europe. What I wanted to see was more of the nitty gritty reality of such harsh lifestyles (which I got from Flint’s 1824 Rivers of War novel).

I was kind of hoping Truman’s task force will be able to save the day in Hancock

I won’t say what the results of that will be, but I will say that the comments i made refer to a future far ahead of Truman’s task force’s ultimate fate.

Far head as to see the conclusion of Truman’s tour of duty, you may say.

Most of this stuff happens in Ashes of Victory, and the book has that name for a very good reason ; )

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

I also liked Eric Flint’s novel length side story to the HH series, called Crown of Slaves. That’s available online at baen too. It was a very nice clarification and elaboration on the genetic slave trade, which Weber mentioned but not did not further into details.

The novel had some key “Eric Flint” moments, such as the way his characters speak in certain teasing moments that you can immediately recognize as his style if you have read his books before, but generally it was very entertaining and the plot wasn’t bad, for an author writing in another’s universe.

David Weber’s side stories, called Shadow of Saganami and its sequel, concerns the Talbot Cluster, which you will hear about soon. They really are meant to be read as a companion to Ashes of Victory and War of Honor.

The story focuses on midshipmen, and not Honor Harrington. But there was quite a lot of COIn going on there. Something you don’t really see in Honor Harrington, for Harrington is far more direct ; ) in such things.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

I expect Weber and Flint in the 1632/3/4

Weber only co-authored with Flint in one novel, 1633 Baltic war, if I have my details right.

Mike Devx

The novel had some key “Eric Flint” moments, such as the way his characters speak in certain teasing moments that you can immediately recognize as his style if you have read his books before

I had to chuckle about ‘Eric Flint moments’. One of the reasons I stopped reading ‘The Wheel of Time’, in addition to the characters never changing and endless exposition, was key ‘Robert Jordan’ moments, such as Nynaeve always tugging on her braids, and Elayne simpering every time she enters Tellaranr’hiod (sp?), and examing whatever form her “dream dresses” are going to take THIS time. All the bad guys had to do was cut off Nynaeve’s braids. She wouldn’t be able to make a decision or do anything, with nothing to tug on.

According to the book covers, Flint wrote 1632 alone; Flint and Weber co-authored 1633 and 1634. From what you’ve said, I won’t like Flint nearly as much as Weber, but perhaps Flint will provide color, and Weber will provide the naval and military strategies, the detail, and the focus on honor, duty, and personal integrity and responsibility that I have come to treasure in ALL of his books.

The COIN aspects of ‘Shadow of Saganami’ will be intriguing. You mention its sequel; is that the new hardcover? (Also, I think Weber is planning to publish the twelfth Honor book later in 2009.)

I know we’ve gone far afield from Book’s original post… but Weber espouses all the timeless conservative principles from Book’s Reagan post, and for me at least, its been thrilling to read such well-written series. Did you know the OCS recommends the Honor Harrington books to its officer candidates – except for the duels and a few other minor points, that is. (OCS doesn’t recommend duels.)

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

Did you know the OCS recommends the Honor Harrington books to its officer candidates

CDR Salamander, a commander in the US Navy active duty, wrote, after I had mentioned honor Harrington, something about this being a “well kept secret”.

This confirms David Weber’s personal anecdotes, in interview, concerning Annapolis instructors gauging course material and entrance inductions based upon HH.

Concerning the novels, there are other 1634 novels, like 1634: Bavarian Crisis and 1634: Galileo Conflict. You are right that Weber co authored 1633 and 1634 Baltic War, however. I just forgot that I hadn’t read the Baltic War, or if I had, I can’t keep the titles straight. Flint’s RIng of Fire, if you haven’t noticed already, has multiple parallel time tracks, so there is no one single plot in a “series” of books.

One of the reasons I stopped reading ‘The Wheel of Time’, in addition to the characters never changing and endless exposition, was key ‘Robert Jordan’ moments, such as Nynaeve always tugging on her braids, and Elayne simpering every time she enters Tellaranr’hiod (sp?), and examing whatever form her “dream dresses” are going to take THIS time.

It’s funny you say that, since I also stopped reading RJ, but for slightly different reasons. Part of it had to do with the 3 harem girls, yes, but the primary part was just bad character, plotting, and exposition/conclusion denouments.

The first few books were long and rambling, yes, but they at least had the virtue of a momentous battle at the end, which was very exciting and satisfactory. Later on, however, the war keeps dragging on and on, like Goodkind’s later novels.

Look, if I wanted to be involved in a quagmire on the war front where I have to deal with the angst of characters doing whatever while they are waiting out this “Sitzkrieg” I could go read Vietnam history or look at the current state of Afghanistan or remember back to 2004-6 in Iraq. If that was what I wanted, I could get plenty of that, and for far less the cost or time wasted.

I prefer decisive wars. If you don’t have a decisive war, then you had better provide good explanations as to why: explanations such as sabotage by Dems, I’d accept that.

I prefer decisive wars in the same fashion as I prefer decisive fights. One fight, one side dies, it’s over. The Legendary Adventures of Hercules and Andromeda both annoyed me, not because the main character sucked, but because the damn combat mechanics sucked. It took forever to kill somebody in Hercules. Forever as being, 1 or 5 people die each season, and only like .5 of em were killed by Hercules. That’s not how it was, Mike ; ) in the real history.

If you want what Wheel of Time should have been, I recommend reading Fel’s Firestaff series, availably only on line for free in his Sennadar line of 10 books, split down with 5 books in a series. I also recommend Brandon Sanderson’s novels. Sanderson is doing the 12th book in the Wheel of Time, and finishing it up. I’ve read Sanderson’s work before and I highly recommend it if you want epic fantasy that is acceptable to a classical liberal or a conservative.

They are better than Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter in my opinion.

Sanderson has very strong female characters. In point of fact, in Elantris he has like a 33% Sarah Palin as the main female protagonist. Of course, some of his proofreaders (libs I think) said that she was too “manipulative” in terms of politics, but I liked her. She knew what was going on politically, on par with my expectations of a conservative female political operator.

This is different from Wheel of Time where the female characters could have been transfered from a Japanese harem anime and nothing much would have changed.

(OCS doesn’t recommend duels.)

if they did, too many Marines from Annapolis and OCS would start shooting fake libs. We can’t have that, now can we.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

Flint’s a socialist, and pro union, Mike. He works well with Weber and Ringo, not sure on the latter, so he is not a “fake liberal”. But he does prefer “social community organizing” and the topics he chooses to write on reflects his beliefs on this aspect.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

Eric Flint’s strengths: Good ideas, plot, and settings juxtaposed with real historical facts. It creates unique challenges for an American (pro-American btw) society in Flint’s books.

Eric Filnt’s weaknesses: He benefits a lot from a military esque collaborator, like Drake or Weber or Ringo (Although if Flint ever combined with RIngo, I think you’d see a nova go off at baen.com. It is like matter and anti-matter here.) Flint doesn’t really envision worlds and then writes series about them. He rather starts with a new idea and then counts on readers to supply the rest of his “universe”. He is very liberal minded in this aspect, consistent with his view that books should be provided for free and that this would stimulate sales compared to the authoritarian copyright locks publishers use currently.

I read him more for the history lesson and the new settings than I read him for classical liberal political expositions and plots. Weber is still king of creating universes full of the same political problems, solutions, and factions as we See Here Today in our world, right now.

Mike Devx

Ymar,
Interesting about Flint. One of my own top five books (desert island books) is “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. Mr. Follett is a confirmed socialist; yet this book has an unabashedly capitalist, for-profit take on market economics. It’s inexplicable that it could have been written by a socialist.

‘The Pillars of the Earth’ is also simplistic, straightforward; it also takes liberties with history to compress many historical advances into a smaller time frame for educational purposes.

And is wildly and massively entertaining. At least for me.

http://ymarsakar.wordpress.com/ Ymarsakar

yet this book has an unabashedly capitalist, for-profit take on market economics. It’s inexplicable that it could have been written by a socialist.

I think this is due to a particular brand of American socialism, where patriotism and capitalism are intermeshed, contrary to European socialism where Obama, Ayers, and all the other mass murderer supporting individuals come from.

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